1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method, and a program product for image processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Colors of pixels of image data can be represented using various color components. For example, the three components of R (red), G (green), and B (blue), or the three components of Y (luminance), Cb, and Cr (color difference), might be used. Noise of various kinds may be included in tone values of such color components. Some examples are noise produced by the image capture element (e.g. a CCD) used to generate the image data; noise produced by the A-D conversion element that converts the analog data from the image capture element to digital data; errors in mathematic operations used to compute the tone values of the color components; and noise occurring with encoding (e.g. compression) of the data. Various processes have been proposed for the purpose of reducing such noise.